May 2012, Issue 166 - Royal New Zealand Navy

te kaha's dre
and go to war if need be.”
TE KAHA has good dynamics, CDRE Martin
says. During the DRE the crew gave a good
strong performance, “but you need to be more
critical of people around you and demand
excellence.” The ship’s overall result is “standard
achieved minus” which is “a solid standard” with
no need for the MOETs to return for another
evaluation. “It’s a good place to be with your
professional careers developing at this time.”
Awards are awarded, the MOETs depart and
CDR Beadsmoore addresses the crew.
“I’m extremely proud of the performance you
have put in this past six weeks and the past 24
hours. It was an astounding effort from start to
finish. The DRE is just one day. We move on.
We have to digest the lessons we have learned
and improve our performance. And we will all
do that.”
It’s another hot afternoon in Fremantle. The
Beer Bar and Barbeque start at 1630. The mood
is relaxed and jovial but many are tired from the
intensity of the week and the past 36 hours.
After a weekend with leave ashore for those
who want it, TE KAHA has more exercises off
Perth, then she is away to Hobart, then back to
DNB before setting off for Hawaii and Rimpac,
where all that the crew have done and learnt
during the Work Up and DRE will be put to more
very hard tests.
FROM GAS STATION
TO ACTION STATIONS
Ordinary Marine Technician (Electronic)
Fraser Young got perhaps two hours’ sleep
overnight when the MOET were putting
the frigate through its Directed Readiness
Evaluation. He was on duty in the ship’s
engine spaces from midnight to 0400, then
had a little sleep before Action Stations
sounded at dawn.
OMT (L) Young (aged 21) is one of the oftenunseen
members of TE KAHA’s company,
working in the engine spaces below the
waterline, based from the Machinery Control
Room (MCR), rarely seeing daylight during such
busy times as a ship’s Work Up and DRE.
“Today wasn’t too bad,” he says, late in
the morning of Friday 23 March, the second
morning of the DRE when TE KAHA’s bridge
was knocked out and general mayhem
erupted throughout the ship at the behest of
the Maritime Operational Evaluation Team.
“You just do your best and get it done as
fast as you can. Do it once, do it right. Make
sure you follow your training. If you follow
your training you can’t go wrong. It keeps
you safe. Whatever happens can be brought
under control.”
Born and brought up in Johnsonville,
Wellington, OMT (L) Young worked at the
petrol station in nearby Crofton Downs after
school and then did a gap year working for
an electrical contracting company while
he considered options for his future. His
parents suggested the Defence Force or
the police. He looked at an avionics career
with the Air Force before going to a Defence
interview where it was suggested he might
become a marine technician.
“I joined the Navy in January 2010. It
was pretty crazy moving out of my home.
All of a sudden I was moving to Auckland.
I didn’t know anyone in the Navy. But it’s
been really good.”
OMT (L) Young has shared his Navy
career between NPRC at Devonport Naval
Base and attachments to WELLINGTON,
TAUPO, CANTERBURY for the Navy’s 70th
Anniversary, and HAWEA, ranging from one
week to one month. He has been involved
in the Navy’s Christchurch earthquake effort
and the RENA oil spill, among other tasks he
has enjoyed.
“TE KAHA is my first posting. It’s called OJT
or on-the-job training. I have a task book with
six months to do heaps of tasks, with lots of
rounds checking machinery, oil levels and so
on making sure all are sound. I was posted
here in mid-January and most of my task
book is already done. Once it’s finished I get
promoted to AMT.”
“You just do your best
and get it done as
fast as you can. Do it
once, do it right. Make
sure you follow your
training. If you follow
your training you can’t
go wrong."
During this day’s MOET-directed Action
Stations, he was busy with a high pressure air
leak from the Gas Turbine start air bottles, a
split seam in a bulkhead that needed wedges
being hit into the seam to stop flooding, and
shoring of a bulkhead. All in the couple of
hours after dawn. As part of the Work Up, he
also had a broken ankle and was a casualty of
a toxic gas leak. Exercise only, of course.
What’s it like working down in the very
depths of the ship? “You get used to it. You
are usually so busy you don’t think about it.
It makes going out to the open air so much
better. That’s why ports are so much fun.”
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